Sports
Curling

They drive curlers nuts, but they can also be the kind of break that can ignite a championship run. And right now, Joe Frans is on a hot streak at the Dominion Tankard.

The Bradford skip trailed Rob Rumfeldt of Guelph 8-4 after eight ends Thursday afternoon at the Ontario men’s curling championship at the Molson Centre. Yet he caught a break in that eighth end when Rumfeldt’s draw for a deuce picked and he was forced to take one.

Given that slimmest of threads, Frans grabbed it. He scored three in the ninth then stole singles in the 10th and 11th for an improbable 9-8 win, then followed up with a 6-4 win Thursday night over Pat Ferris of Grimsby that gave him a 7-2 mark and clinched a playoff spot.

“We’d already thought we’d lost that first game, so it almost made this game tougher we had to win (to keep the momentum),” Frans said after beating Ferris. “But we’re definitely getting some breaks. We were pretty sure we would make the playoffs, but it’s nice to do it with a game to spare.”

On a day of upsets, Frans found himself tied for first with Glenn Howard of Coldwater, who hit and rolled out with his last shot in the 11th to give Darryl Prebble of Toronto Royal Canadian (3-5) an improbable 7-6 win in the night draw.

“It just never curled,” the seven-time defending champ said. “I just took too much ice for the weight I threw.”

And John Epping of Toronto Donalda moved into third at 6-2 after he caught a break when he beat Wayne Tuck 10-9 Thursday night with a steal of two in the 10th after the Brant’s skip last-rock draw rubbed a guard. Tuck had led 9-5 after seven ends.

There was no doubt where the turning point of the day lay for Frans and that was in the eighth end against Rumfeldt.

“That was a miracle,” Frans said. “But something like that can change a week. You need a couple of those kinds of breaks and we’ve been on the other end of a few of those the last couple of years.”

Rumfeldt almost pulled off a miracle of his own in the 11th end. After he jammed on a runback double for the win in the 10th, he was faced with something similar with his final shot in 11. He judged the line perfectly on a long raise to the button, but the promoted stone flopped about an inch too far.

“That bad pick in eight really hurt, but quite frankly we didn’t play a great ninth end, we didn’t play a very good 10th end and we didn’t play a great 11th end, either,” Rumfeldt said. “But you know what? Joe deserved it.”

Rumfeldt then saw another pick go against him in the first end of his night game with Dayna Deruelle of Brampton, who scored three in that end and went on to an 8-2 win that left Rumfeldt in fourth spot at 5-3.

“My first rock to lie two picked and it curled so hard that it took our own stone out and then (Deruelle) made a great comearound,” Rumfeldt said. “Mentally, you’ve got to be going, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”

Ferris is at 4-4 and still has a chance at the playoffs. Tuck, Deruelle, Prebble and Bryan Cochrane of Ottawa City View are 3-5 and are either eliminated or need a ton of help.

A groin injury kept Scott Howard, the second for John Epping’s rink, out of action Thursday at the Dominion Tankard, but the Toronto Donalda skip didn’t have to look far to find a good spare. Greg Balsdon, a member in nearby Orillia who skipped rinks at the last two Ontario men’s curling championships — finishing runner-up to Glenn Howard in 2011 in Grimsby — stepped into the breach. “I got the call (Wednesday) night. It must have been pretty bad for Scott not to finish the game against his dad,” Balsdon said. “I think the plan was to give him (Thursday) off and see what happens from there. I was a little nervous coming in, because they’d been doing well and I didn’t want to mess up the chemistry, but two sweepers are better than one.” Balsdon threw second stones, but called the sweeping on Epping’s shots, with third Scott Bailey sweeping. “Scott’s a better sweeper and judger (of weight) than I am and I’m more used to being in the house,” Balsdon reasoned, adding getting accustomed to the Molson Centre ice was the biggest concern. “It’s really quick.”

Brier list now four

Players will be under the microscope at the Tim Hortons Brier March 2-10 in Edmonton, none more than Chris Schille. The second for Brock Virtue’s newly crowned Saskatchewan champions was ejected from the B event final at his provincials, apparently for consistent profane language. Virtue will head to his first Brier, while James Grattan, New Brunswick champ, will be at his 10th. Already there are Jamie Koe of the Territories and Jean-Michel Menard of Quebec, both of whom are making their seventh national appearances.

Hammer time

Thanks to the four-rock rule, last rock isn’t what it was once was. Through eight draws here, teams starting with the hammer are 19-21, although teams playing blue rocks and starting with hammer are faring a little better at 12-10. And of the 330 ends played heading into Thursday night’s ninth draw, 42 have been blanked for a 12.7% rate, while 88 — a staggering 26.7% — have been stolen.